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User blog:Boymahina123/A Dangerous Update
As you all know, Chris has cut our ammunition rations for all guns except the irrelevantly weak or unviable ones (heck, even the terrible Kriss Vector got its ammo nerfed even though it already doesn't have enough ammo in the first place). This was uncalled for and highly damaging to the TWR playerbase (when factoring in reports of server-sided lag, the relatively new Cabin map, the broken pathfinding, etc.) Despite Chris intending this to change the Meta and force everyone to run around looking for ammo instead of camping one spot for an entire round, this had a rather unforeseen consequence. Despite the most viable and desirable weapons being hit the hardest, the higher levels using these weapons are actually the least affected. The starting players up to lvl 40, on the other hand, were running out of ammo at earlier waves and thus dropping like flies at earlier waves. High levels that help said low level players, whose weapons were the hardest hit by the nerf, suddenly cannot cover and protect the low levels. This is harmful to the reputation of the game and us lvl 100 players because (as an example) if I were the only high level in a Wave 15 server, I am eventually gonna run out of ammo and have to leave everyone else unprotected. And by my experience, low-mid levels don't have the skills to hold out against a massive Wave 15 horde. Hence, they will die before I return (even if I'm only gone for 10-15 seconds) and they are gonna spam me "why did you leave us" and devolve into toxicity. There are multiple reports that have come to my attention of players in the level 30 range running out of ammo and dying at wave 10 or earlier. On top of that, Cabin, which is the hardest map in the game, and notoriously hard to survive in, even by ppl above lvl 100 (by virtue of it being so dark that few guns have the red dot/illuminated sights needed to be able to see where your bullets will hit, so few loot spawns outside the cabin where freerunners have access to them, and the map being so small that the infecteds never seem to stop coming.) is now absolutely impossible without the help of glitch camping the spot at the basement office. High levels like me and a few others obviously objected to this, with me being the most vocal proponent of a temporary full revertion. Quite alot of people (Me, my "junior agents" and alot of other people) saw the potential for reputational damage that is gonna be hard to reverse very early on and fiercely called for the update to be reverted temporarily so it can be thoroughly thought out. The Peak leadership ignored my calls. I resorted to calling attention to myself by trying to strike a conversation with Chris but he said "Don't ping me for unnecessary matters." I threw quite alot of facts and shade at Chris trying to get his attention to the matter and fiercely debated with the Peak leadership to revert this update before the game's reputation gets damaged for the foreseeable future. Because of me calling attention to the issue and fiercely defending my stance to the point of shade-throwing, I was accused of "gaslighting" the server (whatever the fuck that means), lost my Those Who Remain role and got handed a 10 hour time-out. But I kept watching the server, getting more information and evidence to support my stance. I had a "rookie agent" post an indication that I am still there, silently watching and gathering evidence. After that, 6 hours into my time-out, i was kicked out of the server. I then enlisted the help of a few "Junior Agents" to keep spying the server for me and defending the stance that we commonly believe in. They all tried contacting Chris in one form or another, trying to get him to hear me out. All the while, more and more people are quitting the game with rage and dropping rants both in Discord and elsewhere. One of the rants that I found on the unofficial Those Who Remain subreddit (from u/Iridescent_Upbeat) read: "I feel like I wasted a month of my time only to get slapped with this unnecessary update. I've lost all passion for this game as quickly as I gained it, if not faster. The developer team has truly become blind to what the COMMUNITY wants. I can reassure anyone viewing this comment that nobody asked for this update. Furthermore, if this is removed/they give into backlash, they'll probably just drop 2x exp and call it good. '' Regarding boymahina, I can confirm that he was silenced after giving the development team a well deserved earful over this sudden and unneeded change. I was never more disappointed in developers for a Roblox game than I am now. All I could think of was: "Wow, this feels a little bit too much like totalitarianism."'' '' And another thing that threw me off was how people ARE NOT being banned for abusing bugs nor excessive toxicity. The glitches is plausible. Yes, it's their fault it is in the game. However, if someone is not only abusing glitches, but this person is also toxic (also violating several Roblox rules) and aware of this loophole, then I see no reason why said person should not be banned. This has actually happened, which is why it's so specific.'' '' The amount of disrespect I felt when the "Meta update" was presented made me question if they really are listening to the players. If they really do value us, or if they want us just to keep the profit flowing and the clout rising. If they really care about how we as a whole feel about a game some like me have cherished. Their reasoning and I quote "To restore the game to a run n gun format" is what I would define as ILLOGICAL.'' '' The game itself is already hard enough for low levels, but by lowering mags and not prioritizing significant problems, they're slowly but surely plucking off their player base. One by one. Mind you, I am using a high end gamer pc, and I lag unholy amounts on TWR occasionally. It's not my wifi, it's not my pc. It's the game. A lot of infected survival games strive to make their games lowbie friendly, and provide camping spots. What they are doing here is in the process of completely eliminating camping from the game. Then, you have the low mags and zombies already being significantly faster than you even with speed demon. And that's without mentioning how their hit boxes are obnoxiously inaccurate. I see level 35s dying quickly by wave 6-8. Level 35 players should be able to survive wave 15 as long as they work in unison. The game at this point is unnecessarily hard, and I admit that yes, the game could've been given a difficulty spike. However my question is, why? Why force this onto all your players? Every. single. one. Why not create a "hardcore mode" for maybe level 85+ players, where this "meta update" could have been applied to instead? This would have warranted a much more positive response from the community. Why silence those who speak the truth? Just, why? Why did this have to happen?'' I have absolutely no words left. I can only hope that this gem of a game is restored after Bryon returns." This is a conversation one of my "Junior Agents" had with Chris: My "Junior Agent", via Roblox chat since Chris has turned off his DMs in Discord: "Chris this uppdate is a huge misstake, Ik that developers does something wrong some times. But just hear me out pls. As u probaly know I don't server hopp and never will. So Im gonna say this by experince with low-mid lvl players. They didn't need this uppdate, becuase they don't have trigger control and often go full auto. If it's something I have noticed all the games I have played. Low-mid lvl players most suffer becuase they run out of ammo faster and by doing this "nerf" they are gonna suffer even more and now we high lvl players who are trying to help them can't help them as much. Tips: Keep the M60 and Winchester Model 1892 like they are now, they don't need ammo but all the other guns need it badly and most low-mid lvl guns. Btw Boymahina have some facts that u might wanna see, Ik u don't like him at the moment but pls. Listen to what he has to say, I will tell him to be calm and if he does something bad I will take the blame. Im sry about before in the Peak server." Chris replied with this: "I don't block people for having a different opinion from me. If you had read what I said twice before in #general you would already know by now that low and mid tier weapons are all regaining ammo in the next update, as well as revolvers being given more ammo. Other weapons will also be affected, but possibly not as much. This change is to compensate for exactly what you're voicing your concern on, which is that low and mid level players don't have enough ammo to compensate for their skill level and damage of their weapons. I am not upset with either you or the FBI guy, but if you continue to over dramatize and gaslight the server you'll be punished as the FBI guy was. I don't care if you voice your opinion in the server, so long as it's done respectfully and you're able to articulate your concerns through constructive criticism rather than "It's bad because I don't like it and it's bad". I do appreciate how much care you both seem to have for the game and its community, and hope you decide to stay with us while we iron out the changes." First off, I have never over-dramatized anything about the update. I was telling my conclusions based on the stream of facts I am getting from multiple sources and what I think should be done to mitigate the damage. Second, I never went "It's bad because it's bad" without providing any reason whatsoever. I have been getting evidence from LITERALLY EVERYWHERE that this update is damaging the game's reputation and playercount. Third, I may personally stay while they iron out the changes, but many people have already quit the game altogether because of this update. Chris may update the weapon stats, but the update cannot come soon enough. The damage has been done. Had they listened to me when I was voicing out how damaging this update is literally 45 minutes after the update dropped, this would '''NEVER' have happened in the first place.'' I hope that this kind of disconnection between the TWR playerbase and the Peak leadership stops right now. I genuinely don't want this kind of playerbase-damaging update to happen again. I hope this clears everything up. -TWR FBI Agent (Update 1) I have searched up what "gaslighting" means and this came out: "Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, gaslighting involves attempts to destabilize the victim and delegitimize the victim's belief."'' I have looked back at every argument I made and absolutely none of them actually meet the parameters for gaslighting. I was processing reports coming in from every direction and running simulations in my head and came to the conclusion that the update is gonna destroy the game. I got people backing me up with their experiences about the update. Low-mid levels in most servers (at least those that can chat) are complaining and protesting this poorly thought-out and unilaterally forced update. I have run simulations in my head about what low-mid levels are going through based on my own experiences as a low level. I have posted these facts and called attention to them. People have been grumbling left and right about how the game is gonna slowly fall off with this update. I provided the facts to back them up. ''They did not listen. The grumbling was ignored to the point that I had to resort to throwing mild shade just to get attention to the matter. They took that mild shade as a full blown insult (talk about not having sense of humor) and took away my TWR role. I kept fighting for the update to the point of fiercely debating with and eventually arguing with a head moderator which then gave me time-out. (Update 2) It's been 125 hours after the update. 65 hours ago Chris said: "ok well im planning on increasing the ammo pools of low tier weapons up to high tier weapons, scaling it based on level, '' so mid tier weapons have slightly more ammo than high tier ones"'' And an excerpt from the reply my "Junior Agent" got from Chris: "''If you had read what I said twice before in #general you would already know by now that low and mid tier weapons are all regaining ammo in the next update, as well as revolvers being given more ammo. Other weapons will also be affected, but possibly not as much. This change is to compensate for exactly what you're voicing your concern on, which is that low and mid level players don't have enough ammo to compensate for their skill level and damage of their weapons." Yet up until now such ammo rebalancing has yet to be implemented. All the while the playercount is ever so slowly dwindling away as more and more people are not having fun with the game or dont deem getting to lvl 100 worth the long and difficult grind. Every day that the update is up and not rebalanced is hurting the game's reputation more and more. I hope Chris understands this. -TWR FBI Agent (Update 3) Remember how Those Who Remain kept at least 300 players during off-peak hours? August 6 2019, 12:49pm (GMT+8): The first time I have seen Those Who Remain drop below 200 players. August 6 2019, 1:11pm (GMT+8) The worst downtrend I have personally seen so far. But it gets worse. August 6 2019, 2:31pm (GMT+8) It has dropped even further now. But it is not the lowest yet. August 6 2019, 2:37pm (GMT+8) 151 players. The absolute lowest I have seen yet in my entire TWR history. This has been forecast by me and a whole lot of other people in the Peak Discord since the update drop. 6 days in and, just like the ammo, the playerbase (at least during off-peak hours) has also been Thanos-snapped/sawed/cut in half. Not even getting an endorsement by Roblox official social media has been able to arrest this downtrend. I don't know if Chris is realizing this or if he is even seeing the playercount drop, but i sure do hope he takes action on it. The future of Those Who Remain is at stake. -TWR FBI Agent (Update 4) Is this it? Have we won? I am not calling it just yet. I am waiting to check the rebalanced weapon stats before I call this a win. I will keep everyone updated. -TWR FBI Agent (Update 5) as per order of the Head Moderator (Update 6, Last Update maybe?) Chris has released the new update, including a rebalance of the disastrous "Meta Update". This may not be enough for some, but this is good enough for most (probably). And, as always, try to get as good as you can and follow high level advice. This concludes this issue (once and for all, hopefully.) -TWR FBI Agent (Update 7, Turns out it aint over yet.) It's been weeks since the rebalance has been implemented. As it turns out, it isn't enough. And, slightly more recently, the count dropped to 116. I'm also still getting reports of people dying even earlier than when the ammo update just went live. And there are also reports of FPS drops, screen freezes and intense server-sided lag. On top of that, the low wave spawn rates apparently got buffed to the point of killing starting players that are caught off guard. On the bright side, Byron is close to returning from Basic Military Training. Hopefully he fixes everything once and for all. -TWR FBI Agent (Update 7, time to go full Ben Shapiro.) 3 days ago, someone attempted to decredit me with this comment: To rebuke this guy's arguments, That was taken just yesterday, on a Sunday, at 2 PM EST, just about an hour after Cargo and loads of bug fixes were released. It is just about half of what the District Update pulled. And the District update came with a renewed ad campaign. On the second point, I am saying that the low wave spawn rate was buffed based on an on-the-ground analysis. I had a couple of friends with me in that same game that are willing to testify about that. Only server hoppers will tend to never notice the change at all. Also, ever heard of silent updates? Because Roblox tends to do that quite a whole lot these days. Also I am including screen freezes and FPS drops and server-sided lag spikes into my argument because even if they are NOT the fault of Peak (damn you Roblox), the ammo update is entirely Peak's fault. And that, coupled with the fact that the infected are too fast in waves 11 and above, the incessant bolter spam also at waves 11 and up, the broken pathfinding creating glitch spots that had to be sealed off (some of the said glitch spots are also escape routes) and said Roblox sever issues, have made the game borderline unplayable for everyone that doesnt have the M60. Also, have a look at what the Peak devs are doing. Just adding maps. And maps arent gonna satisfy anybody if the problems with the game itself are not fixed. I have become so petty about it because this game has gone so wrong for so long and this is what made me snap. And if you dont believe me when I say I am the voice of the TWR community just have a look everywhere else, especially the game. Oh wait, '''the ones that were grumbling about the update arent even playing the game anymore.' The only ones that stayed were the ones with leaderboard dreams, those that actually can freerun, those with non-potato PCs and those that are still trying to help the low levels any way they can. I am losing hope in this game and its devs. I hope that they fix this or... 'You very well know what will happen.' -TWR FBI Agent (Update 8 this is somewhat of a full on debate going here) You are right on the first point. The low wave spawns apparently is based on what a few have experienced. Take it as you would like, maybe everyone's experiences are different. Maybe it's another interaction between a Roblox update and the game's coding. It may or may not be the truth, ''but I would vouch for it nonetheless. Second point. I agree it has always been like that, but back then you didn't have to worry about it since you dont have to duck into indoor corners looking for ammo. or looking around outside and not finding ammo at all (even though the ammo spawn rates were apparently buffed.) And yes. It is called difficulty in a game. And TWR is meant to be more difficult than other contemporaries. But there is such a thing as a game being too difficult. Imagine a low level getting swarmed/running out of ammo and dying at an early wave (I have reports of people dying as early as wave 1, although wave 6-8 is the average) and being told that the game has 15 waves and it will just get harder and harder with each passing wave. To be honest, I don't think I would stay with this game either if I have started when the ammo update dropped instead of back in April. Because it is just that frustrating to play nowadays. Not everyone has the skills necessary to play this game. But making it much harder for them is certainly NOT gonna make them willing to learn. TWR is meant to be difficult. But this is far too much. Third point. Yes. The Cargo update did not renew ads. But the update pulling half of what it used to when it had ads only means one thing. Poor player retention. That means that at least half of those players that were pulled in by the ads in the District update have put down the game entirely right after they had a taste of it. And since when has there been school on a freaking Sunday at 2pm EST? Fourth point. I agree that Byron had just come back. But I don't really want new content as much as everyone else. What I want is for the game to be fixed completely. Because the rebalance is clearly not enough for alot of people even though it's personally enough for me (besides the Mutant, 90 rounds of reserve is just retarded.) And if I sound impatient about it, it is because'' I actually am impatient''. The game is on life support due to poor player retention. The ads and map updates can only do so much if the compounded problems of lag, lack of ammo, bolter spam, military infected tanking more shots than they should, and others, are not solved. If I quit this fight, the game might as well be sent 6 feet under. But I am getting tired of seeing inaction. And soon enough I'm just gonna give up. I still hope this thing is fixed before that ever happens. -TWR FBI Agent (Update 9) Yesterday I was locked out of my main account (thanks to Yahoo being down for hours on end) and so I logged into a really old alt that was collecting dust. It was a lvl 13 account with only the Mossberg bought. I went to play TWR and was put in a wave 10 server. So essentially that time I was a lvl 115 in a lvl 13 account. No fancy guns, no speed demon/brisk/steady hand/juggernaut, nothing. An utter clean slate, so to speak. Only thing I had was the Mossberg 500 and my lvl 100+ skills. That said, even with the skills of a TWR veteran, I was barely able to survive high waves by freerunning as the devs intended. Much of the limiting factors are the limitations of my loadout (Mossberg 500 and Glock 17), the limitations of having an average PC and internet, the fact that there are twice/thrice more infected than can be killed by 8 shotgun shells and 17 handgun rounds combined, you probably know the rest already by now. And that is with the most viable gun for that level range. Slightly more viable guns have even less reserve. On another anecdote, this time with my main account, I used a spawn in token on a Wave 12 Cargo game with just over 60 seconds left and with a Mutant equipped. I went around doing 2 revives and clearing the hordes around me all by myself, making sure to land every possible shot onto heads and maximize ammo efficiency. Even then, I still ''burned through my 120 rounds before the round was up. No ammo pickups spawned around me. Now, for the responses: ''"the main problem with your points now is that the ammo update ruined the learning curve and made it more harsher for lower levels to learn. i will admit that making some players run around more to get ammo is harsher for the learning curve. but that's it. nothing else was changed, some guns got buffs to their reserve including the lower leveled ones. guns are still as effective barring the loss of a few mags. twr already had a learning curve, and this affected it ever so slightly. you are overestimating the amount of difficulty that this update has changed. at face value anyone would stop playing the game, but analyzing it more it really isn't all that bad." Most people underestimate the effect the ammo reserves have on the game's difficulty. Take the latter anecdote as an example. You can save ammo and make shots count all you want but when the RNG decides to screw around with you, which happens way too often, you are dead. Guns may have the same damage and punch but cutting ammo mean their overall damage potential is cut as well. Running around to find ammo is easier said than done, and its even harder for people that dont know where to find it and how not to get cornered while looking for it. "of course, this is just my own viewpoint and some of it is yours too according to your response. frankly, i don't want to also make the assumption that low level players at a glance don't know how to survive on the higher waves because that's an insult in of itself. twr is not overly complicated in that all players need to pull off rocket science in order to survive on the higher waves. this could also just be a case of twr not being the game for them, and that's also fine. you can't force low skilled players to learn a game if they don't want to. twr is already well recieved even if whether or not you are bad at the game." Refer to the first story. I literally pulled all the stops, used every trick in the lvl 100 playbook and pulled off rocket science to try to survive high waves in a lvl 13 account. But I can't pull it off. If I cant pull it off even with all my experience, what chance does an actual new player have? I can already hear you typing "But low levels arent meant to survive late waves." That point is true. However I dont see mid levels faring any better with this level of ammo. If you don't believe me, consult the second story. Point is, better guns used to actually increase anyone's chances of survival. Now, in a post-ammo-nerf world, better guns don't necessarily do that anymore. And that is one of, if not the most hamful aspects of the ammo update. The main motivation for people to grind the game (getting better guns to better survive the waves) is mostly gone. And the charm of having a game that is higher quality than something like Zombie Rush or Project Lazarus is not gonna be enough to keep most players in. And few players derive enjoyment from running around, scrambling to find ammo while being chased my infected faster than them. And, with the shrinking number of low-mid levels playing the game and filling servers, the motivation of server hoppers and team players are draining as well. "these glitches you describe are simply nothing more than assumptions and some i don't know where you're getting from, for example, militaries taking more shots than they should is not something i encountered and also vague." I presume you haven't been active in the Discord long enough to see the reports of military infected taking more shots than they should. People have been experiencing that since I started playing back in April. They have faded recently because the problem of looking for ammo when RNG screws with you became more pressing. Alot of people used to have reason to be addicted to this game. Now most of those reasons have faded and those former players have probably moved on to a more mainstream Roblox game now. And school is also cutting deep into the plays of every game. But It cuts deeper into TWR's playercount disproportionately deeper. And as a side note, I respect you as a person but I think you are very heavily misinformed. And very heavily misinformed people push my buttons. My hope is fading seeing how low the playercount is dropping. I still hope this can be solved, but every day I hope less and less. -TWR FBI Agent Category:Blog posts